Mel Watt confirmed as the next FHFA head

With a 57 to 41 vote in the Senate, Representative Mel Watt (D-NC) was confirmed as the next head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the regulator of both Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and federal home loan banks. The news of Watt’s confirmation came tonight as he was on a plane back from South Africa as part of the congressional delegation that attended Nelson Mandela’s memorial service.

Senators invoked cloture on Watt’s nomination, marking the first time the chamber had agreed to proceed to final debate on an executive branch nominee under the historic change in Senate rules recently enacted, allowing for a simple majority vote to rule.

Watt won the Democratic vote by a landslide, even pulling over Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Rob Portman (R-OH) to their side to vote for his confirmation.

Watts divided the Senate, remains controversial

The confirmation is surprising, given how many believed his confirmation to be impossible, and some say the new rules paved the way for his confirmation.

Aside from these facts, Watt has been and continues to be at the center of various controversies, for example, Watt supports the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), mocking critics by saying that it is “beyond troubling to hear hyperbolic charges that this bill will open the floodgates to government censorship.”

Watt was found guilty of racial gerrymandering in his district in 1994 and his response to a 2009 investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics was to slash funding for the Office, even though he was cleared of wrongdoing. Nearly a decade ago, he went head to head with Ralph Nader who demanded and never received an apology for Watt’s racist rant, allegedly stating, “You’re just another arrogant white man — telling us what we can do — it’s all about your ego — another [expletive] arrogant white man.”

In 2009, Ron Paul’s bill HR 1207 called for mandatory audits of the Federal Reserve, and in subcommittee, Watt altered the bill so substantially that all audits were essentially removed, a move which Paul said left nothing ofthe original bill. When Paul called for the bill to be restored, Chairman Barney Frank sided with Watt. The stripping of the bill was suspect as Bank of America is headquartered in Watt’s district and threatened to leave.

Tara Steele is the News Director at The American Genius, covering entrepreneur, real estate, technology news and everything in between. If you'd like to reach Tara with a question, comment, press release or hot news tip, simply click the link below.

Austin tops the list of best places to buy a home

Looking at the bigger picture

(REALUOSO.COM) – Let us first express that although we are completely biased about Texas (we’re headquartered here, I personally grew up here), the data is not – Texas is the best. That’s a scientific fact. There’s a running joke in Austin that if there is a list of “best places to [anything],” we’re on it, and the joke causes eye rolls instead of humility (we’re sore winners and sore losers in this town).

That said, SelfStorage.com dug into the data and determined that the top 12 places to buy a home are currently Texas and North Carolina (and Portland, I guess you’re okay too or whatever).

They examined the nerdiest of numbers from the compound annual growth rate in inflation-adjusted GDP to cost premium, affordability, taxes, job growth, and housing availability.

“Buying a house is a big decision and a big commitment,” the company notes. “Although U.S. home prices have risen in the long term, the last decade has shown that path is sometimes full of twists, turns, dizzying heights and steep, abrupt falls. Today, home prices are stabilizing and increasing in most areas of the U.S.”

The average home age is higher than ever

(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.

With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.

Prices of new homes on the rise

Newer homes cost more than they used to. The price differential between new homes and older homes has increased from 10 percent traditionally to around 37 percent in 2014. This is due to rising construction costs, scarcity of lots, and a low inventory of new homes that doesn’t meet the demand.

Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?

Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes

(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.

Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.

So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.

Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.